Companies

The ACCC has rejected ANZ's $4.9 billion acquisition of Queensland-based Suncorp, setting up a likely challenge before the Australian Competition Tribunal.

A judge asked to approve a $50 million settlement in a consumer credit insurance class action against the Commonwealth Bank has questioned a $2.5 million deduction for professional services firm Deloitte.

ANZ's $47 million settlement of a class action over its consumer credit insurance has been given the nod by a judge, who has also approved recovery of the cost of after-the-event insurance held by the law firm running the case.

A judge overseeing a class action over the Optus data breach will order the Information Commissioner to appear in court to explain the “delay and uncertainty” surrounding a number of representative complaints before the OAIC which are hampering the court proceedings.

A judge has questioned an ABC journalist who is the target of a defamation case by ex-commando Heston Russell if he should have treated a key source who another source called a "showpony" more cautiously while reporting on alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. 

Fairfax can see 8,600 emails that passed between Seven’s commercial director and Ben Roberts-Smith’s legal team as it seeks significant defence costs in the accused war criminal’s unsuccessful defamation case, a judge has ruled. 

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has defended its reporting of alleged war crimes in a defamation case by ex-commando Heston Russell, saying the debate over whether its stories were in the public interest “rises well above truth”. 

A source for ABC articles over alleged war crimes that are at the centre of a defamation case by ex-commando Heston Russell told reporters his memory of the events was "hazy", a court heard Friday.

The security sum sought by Monster Energy from an inventor suing the beverage giant for patent infringement was "manifestly excessive", a judge has said, and was based on an estimate of costs that included the fees of three solicitors and two barristers at an interlocutory hearing.

The possibility that a NSW judge will revoke a contingency fee order made in a class action over Arrium's collapse is irrelevant to whether the proceedings should be transferred from Victoria to the appropriate forum, Arrium's auditor KPMG has told a court.